Warming up

In October this year the people of Colombia again will elect its governors, this year at local and regional levels. Campaigns have in practice already started in many places, as is the case in the capital Bogotá with its more than 7 million inhabitants. The picture shows some of the possible candidates for mayor of Bogotá. And yes, one is ex-president Uribe.

In other places potential candidates are still positioning themselves internally in party organisations, or trying to mobilise funds and friends in support of their candidacies. Plenty of posts have to be filled: mayors, municipal councils, departmental governors and parliaments.

It is about time that I get started again, then. I have no ambition to 'cover' the elections, but I will bring up and discuss some relevant themes, if possible with my own observations. Many interesting things happen in Colombia, deserving attention also outside of this country. Corruption, fraud, violence ... these are not Colombian but universal problems. The difference is that they are often bigger and easier to detect in Colombia.

One example: MOE (Misión de Observación Electoral) is an important NGO, a watchdog for elections which just published a study showing that 5% of the voters admit to have voted in exchange for money or goods. 25% say they know someone else who did this. These are high figures, especially as less than half of the eligible voters actually participate in elections. Thus it is likely that 10% of actual voters have sold their vote, or what?

An even more surprising (to me) result of the MOE study is that people with higher income and better education are less likely to vote than poor people with low level of education. How can that be?